Monday, October 16, 2017

Murian
MacDonald loved Rowallen Castle, and she loved the immeasurably happy life she
lived.But when the earl killed her
husband and stole Rowallen from beneath her, Murian vowed revenge.Now, she waylays the earl’s wealthy guests
with a loyal band of misfits, trying to lure him and his guards into pursuit so
she may sneak back into the castle and find evidence of his misdeeds.

Her
plan is working well, until she stops the coach of Gregori Maksim Romanovin, a
prince of Oxenburg, and the Grand Duchess Natasha Nikolaevna.Although she bests him in a duel and makes
off with her prize, Murian hasn’t heard the last of Prince Max—and, whether she
likes it or not, she may very well need his help if she hopes to reclaim
Rowallen and defeat despicable earl who ruined her life.

I
rather liked Karen Hawkin’s novel, The
Prince and I.It’s a curious
blending of romance and Robin Hood, and I enjoyed it.Max is the quintessential hero:dark, brooding, capable and confident—not to
mention, he’s a literal prince.Murian,
on the other hand, is anything but a damsel in distress:she’s calm, competent, hard-working and
surprisingly agile with a blade.She’s
been dealt a terrible hand, having lost her husband and her home, but she’s
making the best of her situation and managing to survive.

When
a sweet romance develops between them, I couldn’t help gush over the tenderness
of their relationship.Murian is driven
by her desire for revenge and, while it does mark her growing affection for
Max, it also makes her a more conflicted, complicated character.Their relationship isn’t cut and dry, rather
they’re faced with a number of hurdles to jump, not least of which a conniving earl
that will see Murian dead and Max brought to heel.

It’s
rather exciting.

However,
I think my favorite character was Max’s grandmother, the Grand Duchess.Natasha was, by far, the most comical
character and, I think, the most knowledgeable.She doesn’t care how others perceive her; rather, she likes the idea
that others consider her a witch.(It’s
why she most often threatens to turn others into goats and frogs.She much prefers infamy to anonymity.)Moreover, she’s often caught in the thick of
trouble, one way or another, and yet she still manages to turn circumstances
exactly how she wants them.

This
last quality makes me think that she’s not the doddering old witch she likes
her grandson to think she is.Natasha is
wily, not necessarily senile; in fact, she strikes me as being preternaturally
intelligent.For instance, if she hadn’t
lost in a card game to the earl, they never would have traveled to Scotland.Max would never have met Murian; Max would
never have gotten involved in the earl’s business and discovered what the man
did.

Natasha
is the force that propels the story forward.She helps shape it the most and, while she may seem laughably naïve or
even foolish, I have this feeling that she’s not what she seems.Throughout the story as I learned more about
her, I had this odd suspicion that she knew exactly what she was doing, that
she calculated every move to her—and, by proxy, her grandson’s—benefit.

Personally,
she’s part of what made The Prince and I
so enjoyable.I may have to read more of
the series if it means I can reacquaint myself with the Grand Duchess.

Friday, October 13, 2017

When Dr. William Ravenswood and his sister Mary
arrive in London in 1815, they are all but friendless.They are newly arrived in England, being the
children of wealthy planters who, abhorring the slave trade, freed their
workers and sold their plantation. Their charming manners and wealth soon
attract interest, and their letter of introduction allows them to meet others
of similar station.They are looking for
someone in particular, however;Henry Austen,
a gentleman who has a sister with a secret.She’s an author.

The Ravenswoods have secrets as well.They are not brother and sister, those are
not their real names, and they have come from a great deal farther than
Jamaica.

They are time travelers, sent back to try to obtain
by hook or by crook a copy of a never published Jane Austen novel.

Let me say at the start that I can be a bit
squeamish about light fiction using actual historical characters.I tend to second guess a lot, wondering
whether or not Ben Franklin or Edgar Allan Poe or Jane Austen would really have
behaved in the manner depicted.The
reviews on this book were good, so I decided to chance it.

It is well-written and quite well thought out.I don’t know if author Kathleen A. Flynn has
ever read Connie Willis, but some elements reminded me of her marvelous Oxford
Time Travel series:the travelers’ base
institute is in Oxford, for example, and the elaborate contingency plans are
made.There is some description of the rigorous
training involved when time traveling back to 1815: learning to ride a horse,
getting properly dressed in the garments of the time, and the crucial ability
to blend in with the population.

Characterization was well done, and the reader gets
a good feel for the time period.The story
is told from the point of view of Dr. Rachel Katzman, aka Mary Ravenswood, a
medical doctor who has provided humanitarian aid in various countries under
difficult circumstances.She is adept at
hiding her horror at some of the living conditions—handwashing, for example,
isn’t nearly as prevalent as in modern times—but occasionally chaffs at the
restraints she must endure as a woman in a time when women had limited influence.

I enjoyed The Jane Austen Project.The author had done her research, and still
managed to pull out a few surprises.The
result is a very satisfying novel.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

To
start, Nevermore dived into Eleanor
Oliphant is Completely Fine, a debut novel by Gail Honeyman.Eleanor Oliphant is not your average
heroine.Serious, socially awkward, and
painfully odd, Eleanor tries to avoid any kind of social interaction or hiccup
that might disturb her carefully orchestrated life.That is, until she meets Raymond, the IT guy
from her office, and subsequently saves Sammy, an elderly gentleman who took a
spill on the sidewalk.Now, Eleanor has
to wonder if her isolated life has been worth it—and if opening her heart to
someone else might be a risk worth taking.Our reader called Eleanor Oliphant
is Completely Fine an intensely emotional and incredibly moving novel.“[I found it] so beautiful how her
friendships help her survive” the worst parts of her life, she said.She highly recommended Honeyman’s debut,
saying it was well worth reading.

Next,
Nevermore checked out The Lost City of
the Monkey God by Douglas Preston.In 2012, Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a quest to
rediscover this incredible, lost city.Called the “White City” by the conquistadors and legendary among indigenous
people, the Lost City of the Monkey God held an undiscovered trove of treasures
and history.Using LIDAR to help them
chart a course, Preston and the rest of the team set off into the Honduran rain
forest.They were astonished by the
discoveries they made and the dangers they faced—and brought home.Our reader loved The Lost City of the Monkey God.She said it offered an astonishing depth of knowledge on the history of
the region, as well as detailed some of the more extreme dangers the scientific
team faced.It was truthful of the
hardships and it shed light on the various plights, pitfalls, and problems with
which archaeologists deal.

In
Shadow Man, Detective Ben Wade has
returned to Rancho Santa Elena in search of a quieter life.Filled with peaceful streets, quaint
communities, and excellent schools, Rancho Santa Elena is the perfect place for
Ben to take a break and rebuild his crumbling marriage—until a daring serial
killer arrives on the scene.Now, Ben
and forensic specialist Natasha Betencourt must stay one step ahead of a
killer, before he chooses his next victim.Thrilling and thought provoking, Shadow
Man is a fascinating detective story on how personal secrets can quickly
wreak havoc and destroy lives.Our
reader gave high praise for Alan Drew’s novel, saying he enjoyed it immensely;
however, he also noted he’s ready for a change of pace:“[I’ve come] to realize…I’ve read too many
mystery books in a row.”He’s ready for
his next book to be of a scientific variety.

Nevermore
jumped back in time with Jane Austen’s classic, Persuasion.Published in
1818, Persuasion tells the story of
Anne Elliot.When she was only nineteen,
Anne fell in love with Captain Wentworth; however, with neither fortune nor
title to his name, she was forced to break her engagement with him and warned
never to see him again.Seven years
later, Anne reconnects with beloved captain—now, a wealthy and accomplished
Navy man—and she begins to wonder if second chances really do happen, or if
she’s pinning too many hopes on a fond memory.Our reader admitted she enjoyed reading Persuasion more than she expected.She thought it was a sweet, romantic story that offered an unexpectedly
astute view on class, wealth, and privilege.It was a nice change of pace for our reader, even if she wondered how
women could possibly be content with being entertained and wooed all the
time.“It seems [very] boring,” she
noted.

Last,
Nevermore jumped into Inferno:A Doctor’s Ebola Story by Dr. Steven
Hatch.Hatch, an infectious disease
specialist, fired worked in Liberia during 2013 at a hospital in Monrovia.Within six months, several physicians were
dead and Ebola was quickly growing into an international crisis.Hatch also helped create the Ebola Treatment
Unit with the International Medical Corps, trying to stop the spread of this
horrific disease—and temper the xenophobic politics that stemmed from this
crisis.Inferno is an uncompromising look at Liberia’s violent history and
the virus that nearly destroyed it.Our
reader called Hatch’s book “absolutely fascinating.[It was] very informative and very well
written.”She added that it was very
interesting to see how the history of Liberia factored into the spread of the
Ebola epidemic and how doctors were able to track the virus, going into such
great detail as to hypothesize on the victim of the very first Ebola infection.

Monday, October 9, 2017

When I first picked up Navel Gazing, I realized
I recognized the author’s name. He was relatively famous, I knew that; I’d
seen him on a screen somewhere, even if I couldn’t remember exactly where.
However, I’d never recognized him as a writer. It surprised me, and
I couldn’t help wondering if this wasn’t just another memoir by a celebrity
with a ghost writer.

Except Michael Ian Black isn’t just another
celebrity writing a book about his career; rather, he’s a man writing about the
trials of everyday life with a terminally ill parent.

He discusses his family and his life as he
grapples with his mother’s deteriorating health; he discusses his health and
what he’s not doing to improve it; he discusses his beliefs,
his religion and how it impacts him as his mother struggles with one medical
diagnosis after another. It’s a candid account on life in general and
full of humorous musings on health, happiness, and faith.

I loved reading Black’s memoir for the simple
fact that I could relate to him. When he talks about his health and his
worries regarding growing older, yet he doesn’t want to schedule another
appointment with the doctor, I understood his fear of disease and his
subsequent reluctance to do anything about it. I mean, it sounds exactly
like something I would do; in fact, it sounds like something I’ve done.

Likewise, when Black discussed his floundering
attempts to become healthy and, for instance, decided to take up jogging as a
healthier alternative to binge watching Netflix, I understood and connected
with his experiences. I understood his struggles with weight and physical
exercise (it’s exhausting), and I recognized his desperate desire to discover
something deeper, more important in his running routine.

“The toughest thing about training for the half marathon was the time
commitment: hours per week, hours that could have been more fruitfully
spent not running. Why did I persist, week after week, through the summer
heat and into the chilly days of autumn? What was my fascination with
running? [...] What did I want? The truth is, I knew what I
wanted from running, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to admit it: I
wanted enlightenment. And this is where are all my convoluted feelings
about my body and Mom’s declining health and aging and my own fear of death and
praytheism congeal into a goopy sludge. This is the nexus. It is a
stupid nexus, to be sure, but I could not quite shake the idea that running
could save me.”

I laughed at his self-deprecating humor, of
course, but I enjoyed his candor and I connected on a personal level with his
experiences. I know what it’s like to struggle with weight and health
concerns (doesn’t everyone?), and I know what it’s like to hope that you can
find something—anything—in physical
activity.You hope to find enlightenment,
contentment, peace—you know, something you can’t quite name—and it’s always a
little disappointing if you don’t.

Overall, I loved the reading Navel
Gazing. It’s fun and humorous, like it’s intended to be, but it’s
also insightful and relatable. It connects on a deeply human level,
exploring our individual foibles and disappointments, our worries and fears and
insecurities. Personally, I came away from Navel Gazing with
a familiar, ‘intense...almost electrical connection” to another human being.

It’s a feeling that I’m sure any reader will
appreciate after finishing Black’s memoir.

Followers

About Me

The BPL Bookblog reviewers include:
Ambrea, who reads widely and who brings a fresh perspective to any review;
Christy H. who often likes a walk on the spooky side;
Kristin, the Eclectic Bibliophile who can help you find the perfect book;
and Jeanne. When we figure out what she does, we'll let you know.
BBL stands for "Bookblog of the Bristol Library." It also stands for "Be Back Later"-- as in, "Be back later, we're reading."